


he can laugh, but i love it

by laddybants



Category: Macbeth - Shakespeare
Genre: Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, F/M, LOOK i KNOW nobody asked for this!!! I AM AWARE!!!!, M/M, Post-Canon, also ross/angus r the Uncles they r MARRIED, it's not rlly mlm it's one sided BUT fleance is bi so jot that down, just. just click on it it's SO short i promise., macduff's son (sirrah) is autistic i make the rules
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-19
Updated: 2020-01-19
Packaged: 2021-02-27 04:14:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 532
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22320889
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/laddybants/pseuds/laddybants
Summary: don't we all need love? (the answer is easy)
Relationships: Fleance (Macbeth)/Original Character(s)
Kudos: 4





	he can laugh, but i love it

**Author's Note:**

> look okay not to post for the NICHEST possible market but it's MY account *I* get to choose the content!!!! 
> 
> also i hope you enjoy this because i wasted a bewitched bothered and bewildered lyric on the title of this thing. AND i used a pretty shining people lyric for the summary! i did that for you, the zero people who will read it. be grateful! those could have gone on a GOOD fic but they went on this!

Sirrah doesn’t really mind at first. Lily will come back with mud all up one side and in her hair and on her face; Sirrah will retch and not touch her; their mother will clean her up and half-hearted chastise their father for letting her get like this _again._ Sirrah doesn’t mind that his father doesn’t take him hunting. He hates the feel of mud so much it drives him to tears. He can’t stand the sound animals make when the arrow hits them. The dogs bark too loudly and the horses scare him. He doesn’t mind he’s not his father’s favourite.

He’s his mother’s favourite, and that’s what matters at home. She lets him sit at her feet while she sews, tells him stories by the fire, sits him on her lap and strokes his hair. She answers his every question patiently and softly. She understands him better than his father does, and he doesn’t mind that one bit.

Until he does. Because people care about Lily more, it seems. His uncles ruffle her hair and say she did well (and maybe it’s his fault that he can’t stand the wrong people touching his hair, but he wants the attention so badly.) It’s never said out loud, but they all know Lily will inherit Fife when she comes of age, and Sirrah will marry the daughter of another lord, somewhere possibly far away from the part of Scotland he regards as home.

Lily comes home in tears one day. Her shin is bloody all the way up to the knee. “It _hurts,_ ” she tells their mother. She sits Lily on the table and calls for water and wipes away the blood and strokes _Lily’s_ hair until she stops crying. Sirrah watches from the doorway and darts away when his mother looks at him.

Sometimes, he can hear Banquo’s son laughing outside with her. They ride around each other in circles, fight each other using sticks as crude swords, sit across from each other by the fire and flick the ashes at one another. Sirrah hates the feeling it makes him have in his chest.

Fleance is so _kind_ to him. He’s so soft and nice to talk to when he isn’t with Lily. Sirrah thinks that if he had to marry anyone on the spot, he wouldn’t say Fleance in a heartbeat, but no more than three would elapse before the other boy’s name fell past his lips.

He sees Lily climb out of her window one night. She holds a finger up to her lips to shush him. He mirrors her movement with his own hand, dumbly, and watches as she disappears through the edge of the square of sky he can see through the window. After a few seconds, he rushes to the gap and peers down at her and Fleance huddled together. Fleance holds a torch aloft and it casts just enough light for him to see her laugh and lean into his chest. He draws her face upwards with his other hand. Sirrah looks away. He knows what comes next and he doesn’t need to see it. 

They’ve long left the courtyard before he turns back around.

**Author's Note:**

> there, now wasn't that easy?


End file.
